Bali Travel Forum

Why are there 3 Bali Forums?

Hi Poquita,

I am so glad you asked. I know why, but I don't know what to do about it!
I think in every country there are double place-names, but this is especially the case in Indonesia. To name a few examples: there are five places named Bandung and three named Bogor.

So there are three places named Bali too. If you search for Destination = Bali, you get three answers:
Asia > Indonesia > Bali
Asia > Indonesia > Bali
Asia > Indonesia > Bali > Bali

The first one is THE Bali, the island.
The second one must be a village in West-Java, I have not yet succeeded in finding it's exact location.
The third one is a village on the island Bali.

No doubt VT-ers get confused.
We really need only the first Bali on VT, we have a long way to go before anyone wants to make a page on these small villages.

I can only wonder why the VT team thought is necessary to include all these small villages in their database. I think that was a mistake.
The second mistake is that many places are not listed under their correct province. My search for Destination = Bali should have resulted in:
Asia > Indonesia > Bali
Asia > Indonesia > West Java Province > Bali
Asia > Indonesia > Bali > Bali

Even many more important places are not listed under their province. Examples you can find on my Travel Page, where all towns should be listed under a province name, but some appear under Indonesia.

As it is now tips on Bali are scattered under three labels, most under the correct one, and I am afraid the tips under the other two labels are seldom read.

A long time ago I sent an email about this problem to the VT team, even volunteered to help clean up the mess (I used to be a database manager before my retirement). But I got no response.

What to do? Ask all Indonesia visitors to send a protest mail?

Cheers,
Theo

The location database was bought as is, so not something the VTstaff chose to compile. As it is, there is very limited editing possible without endangering the entire database. However the good news is that plans are afoot to change this and make it so the staff will be able to make corrections and additions.
If members use the Map feature, which came along well after the database was installed, they can ensure they chose the correct location.
I have found that writing to members to ask them to shift their pages meets with negativity as they fear they will lose their Top5 rank etc. However if everyone moves their page, it's likely the Top 5 will stay the same or very similar.
Anyway, in the near future, things will be more clear and manageable.